Sex offenders get special rights

I'm mad.

There's a pattern that's been expanding in America for years, and I'm disgusted that it's been allowed to continue: Convicted sex offenders are granted rights and privileges that nobody else can ever dream of receiving. I frankly am tired of having to deal with it every few months, but if society would stop pampering these monsters, I wouldn't have to keep this unsavory subject in the spotlight.

A case in point is a recent story out of Tacoma, Washington, in which a 40-year-old mother was sentenced to 3 months in jail for attacking a convicted child molester with a bat. (The molester had been convicted of abusing 2 girls who were only 5, and didn't even register under the right address in the sex offender registry.)

I fucking hate child molesters. I make no apologies for this sentiment. I'm not encouraging vigilantism, but we have a duty to keep them out of our communities.

But with a criminal justice system hell-bent on mollycoddling molesters, we haven't had much luck in this regard. Child molesters enjoy a revolving door justice system, in which they rarely have to do much jail time.

These days, if the parent of a sick child buys too much Sudafed, they're often looking at hard time. But if some creep molests a 5-year-old, they can often count on a light sentence.

You can argue that it was unwise for the mother in Tacoma to take matters into her own hands. But everyone knows that if someone who is not a sex offender was attacked with a bat, the assailant would probably never be sentenced to 3 months.

There was a case in my area a few years ago that was somewhat like the Tacoma case. The mother of a child who was molested attacked the molester, and was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Prosecutors were so determined to make the mother pay that, when a jury acquitted her, the prosecutors threatened to retry her until they got a conviction. (Retrying a defendant because the prosecutors didn't get a conviction is unconstitutional, of course, but it happens around here occasionally.)

One of few things of value I learned in high school was the chapter in history class about ancient legal codes. One of the old codes said something like, "If a man takes the eye of a free man, let him pay 1,000 cubits. If a man takes the eye of a slave, let him pay 100 cubits." The modern American legal system is a bit like this: Assault a sex offender, get 3 months. Assault someone who is not a sex offender, get 3 days (if that).

I am absolutely livid.

(Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/washington_mother_sentenced_fo.html)